Ellen DeGeneres recently interviewed Van Jones on her syndicated talk show, and the comedienne began to wax indignant towards the long-gestating crisis of killing unarmed black people in America.
DeGeneres admits that "as a white person, I'm ashamed" of the phenomenon that routinely takes the lives of innocent American citizens. The Finding Dory star highlights the killing of Diante Yarber and Brennan Walker, two individuals who were did not have a firearm in their possession when they were fatally shot. Yarber was approached by California police officers in a Walmart parking when he was greeted with a flurry of unwarranted bullets. Walker endured a similar fate after he knocked on a person's door asking for directions before being shot and killed on the spot.
The talk show show continues to ponder "how is this possible that this keeps happening and nothing — there’s just blatant racism."
Jones provides an anecdote that illustrates the vast disparity in how whites and blacks are treated by the law. Drawing upon his academic tenure at Yale University, the news commentator notes how white students used illicit substances to little or no legal repercussions. However, "four blocks away, in the housing projects, kids were doing drugs and they all went to prison."
Jones adds how society has "this brain glitch that says, if a white kid does it, eh, maybe they need a little bit of help. If a black kid does it, we’ve gotta punish them." Similarly, he notes how throughout America, there is a "default unwritten rule" that justifies police actions. "Any human system that doesn’t have adequate checks and balances is going to tend toward abuse and corruption," Jones cautions.